My conversation with ChatGPT: Complaint registered

Me:

Has anyone ever mentioned that JavaScript sucks at date manipulations?

ChatGPT:

Yes, you're not alone in thinking that! JavaScript's native Date object has long been criticized for its cumbersome and unintuitive handling of date and time manipulations. Many developers find the API confusing, error-prone, and lacking in functionality compared to what's needed for more complex date operations.

This is why libraries like Moment.js (though now in maintenance mode) became popular—they simplified date manipulations significantly. These days, many developers use date-fns or Luxon, which are more modern, lightweight, and offer a more functional approach to date handling.

JavaScript's native date handling has improved with the introduction of Intl.DateTimeFormat for formatting and the Temporal API, which is still a proposal, aims to provide a more robust solution for date and time manipulation. But until those are widely adopted, many developers still prefer using third-party libraries for anything beyond the most basic date manipulations.

Me:

Instead of this:

const fifteenMinutesAgo = new Date(Date.parse(currentCheckTime) - 15 * 60 * 1000).toISOString();

Could I do this?
new Date(currentCheckTime.parse() - 15 * 60 * 1000).toISOString();

ChatGPT

Unfortunately, you can't use currentCheckTime.parse() because parse() is a static method of the Date object, not a method on date strings. So, the syntax you proposed won't work directly.

However, you can still simplify it in this way:

const fifteenMinutesAgo = new Date(Date.parse(currentCheckTime) - 15 * 60 * 1000).toISOString();

The Date.parse() method is the correct way to convert an ISO date string (currentCheckTime) to a timestamp. Here's why the alternative doesn't work:

Why It Doesn't Work:

• currentCheckTime.parse(): This doesn't work because currentCheckTime is just a string, and strings in JavaScript don't have a parse() method. Date.parse() is the correct way to parse a date string.

Correct Syntax:

const currentCheckTime = new Date().toISOString();
const fifteenMinutesAgo = new Date(Date.parse(currentCheckTime) - 15 * 60 * 1000).toISOString();

This is as concise as you can get using native JavaScript without introducing errors.

Me:

I am registering a formal complaint.

ChatGPT:

Complaint registered! 😄

JavaScript date handling has definitely caused many developers frustration over the years. If you ever want to explore alternatives or need tips on how to make date manipulations less painful, I'm here to help. Meanwhile, I'll file this one under "reasons JavaScript drives developers to coffee (or something stronger)!"

Meanwhile, even if we have to write a treatise in order to calculate a time, at least I'm making some progress with the appearance of the recent activity listing.